Alamance County teachers protest education cuts

But mostly they vowed to do something about the cuts to education approved this summer by state legislators.

“We need to stand up for what is right and what is just,” said Tony Foriest, a former Democratic state senator from Alamance County.

He was one of a handful of speakers who addressed a crowd gathered on Court Square for a rally for public education. More than 100 people attended -- the majority involved with education. There were plenty of teachers outside the old courthouse Saturday morning.

The local rally was organized by the Alamance-Burlington Association of Educators. It came about at the request of the N.C. Association of Educators, whose leadership asked local chapters to hold rallies Saturday to commemorate the 50thanniversary of the 1963 March on Washington.

Speakers said members of the current legislature have sent the state into a tailspin with cuts to education. As Foriest put it, after North Carolinians worked decades to become recognized as a good schools state, the current legislature is “bent on turning back the clock.”

Steve Van Pelt, a retired educator and member of the Alamance-Burlington Board of Education, said the cuts mean that when schools in Alamance County open Monday for their first day of classes, they’ll be doing so with 17 fewer teachers and 35 less teacher’s assistants than a year ago. Two assistant principals and a trio of education directors have also been lost.

Van Pelt said it’s necessary for educators to band together. He encouraged membership in the N.C. Association of Educators and the Alamance-Burlington Association of Educators.

“We will be a strong force with which to be contended,” Van Pelt said. “If we’re not united, the general assembly will pick us off one at a time.”

Lillie Cox, superintendent of the Alamance-Burlington School System, said the cuts to education funding come at a crucial time. She noted the system this past year had the highest high school graduation rate in its history and witnessed a 26 percent upswing in scholarship dollars going to graduating seniors.

“We have lots to celebrate,” Cox said.

But she and others warned the cuts make difficult maintaining such advances. Several noted that North Carolina has dropped to 48thnationwide in teacher’s pay.

One of the signs carried Saturday referenced that and the well-publicized pay Gov. Pat McCrory has bestowed on young members of his staff. The sign read: “N.C. state employees. 24-year-old McCrory campaign worker = $84,000. N.C. teacher 36+ years experience = $53,180. Huh?”

Another sign read: “Teachers deserve respect, not neglect,” while a third noted: “I stand for the children, I wish Rick Gunn would stand for me” -- the latter a jab at Alamance County’s Republican state senator.

Organizers said Gunn and other legislators were invited, but didn’t respond to the invitations.

Marilyn Clayton, a teacher at North Graham Elementary, attended the rally with her dogs -- Mikki and Nine. Since her hands were full managing the dogs’ leashes, Clayton had pinned to the back of her shirt a small sign that read: “Woof for better wages.” Pinned to a harness that Mikki wore was one reading: “I’m doggone mad.”

Tom Manning, chairman of the Alamance County Board of Commissioners, noted that the recent trend in education is toward larger classes and lower pay.

“It ought to be going the other way,” he said.

Manning said when a new industry is considering locating to Alamance County, one of the first things their representatives ask is: “How is the public education here?”

Manning said there was a time when administrators with individual counties worried that without supplements, they were going to be a training ground for younger teachers who left for higher-paying jobs once they gained experience. Now, he said, the fear is that’s going to become true for all of North Carolina.

“We must remain competitive in so many different ways,” Manning said.

Mark Jewel, an administrator with the N.C. Association of Educators, encouraged all teachers to wear red to school on Monday as a sign of protest against the cuts to education. He noted that individual boards of election have already announced plans to close polling sites on four college campuses in the state as legislators approved bills that will make it more difficult for college students to vote.

“This is not democracy,” Jewel said.

He motioned to the crowd before him before continuing, “This is what democracy looks like.”

Karen Slade, president of the local association of public-school employees, emceed Saturday’s event. Between speakers, there was music and laughter. For mid-August, conditions couldn’t have been more ideal -- with sunny skies and cool temperatures.

“We’ve been held back, held down long enough,” Slade said at the rally’s end. “It’s time for us to rise.”

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